Rutland gets PEGged
Public access TV expands with new kitchen studio space, weather, Internet
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Michael Valentine shows off the new kitchen at the PEG TV studios in the Howe Center in Rutland on Sunday afternoon. The station has also added streaming video and weather programming. CASSANDRA HOTALING / RUTLAND HERALD |
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By Brent Curtis Herald Staff - Published: February 26, 2008
Public access television in Rutland is more accessible with more things to watch than ever before.
Rutland Community Access PEG TV has added new online features allowing Internet users to access its three channels worldwide and is adding cooking and local weather to its programming lineup.
"We've been busy," said Michael J. Valentine, executive director of the local television studio located at the Howe Center.
During the last eight months, PEG has upgraded its Web site to allow streaming videos of scheduled programming and video on demand of archived material.
The expansion onto the Internet has been one of the most gratifying achievements of the year, Valentine said.
"I can't stress the beauty and the importance of our streaming video and on demand video enough," he said. "I always hear from people who don't have cable that they can't watch us. Now, those people will have access if they have an Internet connection."
The upgrade has also expanded the channel's viewership far beyond Rutland County's borders. Web-tracking of visitors to the site in recent months have found hits from as far away as Peru, China, Poland, Ireland and Russia.
While the technological upgrades hold the most far-reaching potential for PEG, the decision to add cooking to its programming repertoire has had the most impact on the station's studio space.
To host community generated cooking shows, PEG officials converted an empty and unfinished storage space into a state-of-the art kitchen complete with a commercial refrigerator, range, oven and vent-hood and granite countertops.
Many of the items, including the countertop and cabinets, were donated by local businesses, Valentine said. Several other items on the set were sold to the station at discount prices. In all, Valentine estimated that the station, which receives all of its funding from surcharges that Comcast Corp. is federally required to collect and escrow for public access television use, paid roughly $28,000 on the renovations.
At present, the station has committed to only one show — "What's Cooking Rutland" produced by the Chaffee Art Gallery. That show will debut on March 1 at 8 p.m. on Channel 15.
How many other cooking shows will air remains uncertain. Valentine said PEG has heard from 14 people in the community interested in creating shows, but he said a limited number of time slots would probably shorten the list of culinary broadcasts that would run regularly.
"It's just a matter of how many cooking shows can you have in the same month," he said. "We're thinking right now about two a month."
But while room for programming is limited, Valentine said he encourages anyone in the region with an idea for a cooking show to call the studio.
Cooking isn't the only new addition to the station's lineup.
Valentine said new software and meteorological equipment will soon transform PEG into the ultimate local weather channel.
"We're going to be able to give hyper-local weather reports," he said. "We'll be able to get as close as a 30-mile radius and go out from there to 60 miles, 90 miles and countrywide."
The forecasts and predictions, which Valentine said will be ready to debut next week, will run on Channel 15 and on the station's Web site at www.pegtv.com.
Contact Brent Curtis at brent.curtis@rutlandherald.com.
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